Double bend stranded wire making machine

ABSTRACT

A stranded wire making machine having two twisting stations and constructed so that reversal of the delivery spools is not necessary. The tendency of the preformed stranded wire to untwist is eliminated by an added twisting device which deforms the strands beyond their elastic limit so that a neutral stranded wire is obtained.

Unite States Patent 1191 Fischer 1451 July 30,. 1974 1 DOUBLE BEND STRANDED WIRE MAKING MACHINE [76] Inventor: Erhart Fischer, 6349 Friedrichstrasse l7,

Merkenbach/Dillkreis, Germany [22] Filed: Oct. 10, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 295,910

[52] U.S. Cl 57/58.57, 57/58.59, 57/58.7, 57/58.83

[51] Int. Cl D07b 3/02 [58] Field of Search 57/58.52, 58.57, 58.59, 57/58.7, 58.87, 58.86, 55, 9, 161, 166

Primary Examiner.1ohn Petrakes Attorney, Agent, or FirmHauke, Gifford, Patalidis & Dumont [57] ABSTRACT A stranded wire making machine having two twisting stations and constructed so that reversal of the delivery spools is not necessary. The tendency of the preformed stranded wire to untwist is eliminated by an [56] Referencescited dd dt '1' d 111 d f rm :11 st d b a e wls mg evice w 1c e o s e ran 5 e- UNITED STATES PATENTS yond their elastic limit so that a neutral stranded wire 1,565,862 12/1925 Massingham 57/58.57 is obtained 1 1,862,345 6/1932 Wolf 57/55 X 1,907,551 5/1933 Kraft 57/58.57 X 14 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures 44 l v 1 0k 45 W m4 075 1 40 I 6/ PAIENTED JUL30I9T4 SHEET 2 OF 3 PAIENIED JUL 3 01914 sum 30F DOUBLE BEND STRANDED WIRE MAKING MACHINE FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention concerns a double twist machine for the manufacture of stranded wire from individual strand elements, especially for the manufacture of stranded wire from thin steel wires.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION During recent years, the favorable properties of socalled steel belted tires have steadily increased the sales of these types of tires. This has led to a steadily increasing demand for thin stranded wire made from steel wires having a diameter of 0.15 to 0.30 mm which are needed for the manufacture of steel belted tires. Until now, the demands of the market for wire twisting machines were met by a great number of designs; however, the known machines offered on the market require, in general, a relatively large space and have a limited output calculated as manufactured length or stranded wire per time unit.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION Therefore, the present invention has the object of making available a machine for the manufacture of stranded wire having a twisting power which is considerably increased as compared with that of known machines having the same rotational speed.

The invention has the further object of making available a machine for the manufacture of stranded wire which requires a considerably smaller floor space than installations having the same power.

The invention has the further object of making available a machine for the manufacture of stranded wire which does not have the tendency of untwisting the individual wires.

The invention has the further object of making available a machine for the manufacture of stranded wire which does not show any substantial waviness.

The invention has the further object of making available a machine for the manufacture of stranded wire which makes possible a change in the direction of twist by a simple reversal of the machine.

According to the invention, these objects and other objects are attained by a machine in which a segment of the wire to be formed is conveyed along the lateral area of a cone by means of a reeling device so that two twisting areas are formed with the result of obtaining double the twisting power possible at a given rotational speed of the rotating device.

The stranded wire formed at both twisting areas still has the tendency to produce untwisting of the individual wire elements. In the present invention this tendency is eliminated by an added twisting device which twists the preformed wire beyond the elastic limit so that a deformation remains which results in a neutral wire.

The new machine for the manufacture of stranded wire does not require reversing of the delivery spools for the wires, nevertheless, stranded wire without an untwisting tendency is obtained.

The individual wire strands and the stranded wire are conveyed through the machine by means of a take-off device preferably comprising two pulleys which are coupled with each other by the wire being conveyed. A

control shaft is driven by the main driving motor and serves for driving a gear for driving the second takeoff pulley whereby preferably, the length of the turn of the wire to be formed can be regulated by a simple changespeed gear. The direction of the rotation of the main driving motor which drives the reeling device can be reversed 20 that a stranded wire with a left twist or a right twist can be manufactured as desired. In order that the first take-off pulley always rotates in the same direction although the second take-off pulley rotates differently depending upon the direction of rotation of the motor, the winding of the wire around the take-off pulleys is selected so that the wire either intersects or does not intersect between the take-off pulleys (i.e., forms a loop having the shape of an 8 or of an 0).

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Further details of the invention will be explained by an example of a mode for carrying out the invention. This explanation will be aided by the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a simplified lateral view of the machine according to the invention and including several portions shown in cross section for purposes of clarity;

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view taken substantially along line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross section view taken substantially along the line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken substantially along the line 44 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view of structure shown in FIG. 1 enlarged somewhat and partly shown in section for purposes of clarity; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view of structure shown in FIG. 1 enlarged somewhat for clarity.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Now referring to FIG. 1, the main parts of the machine are: machine frame 1, driving unit 2, winding device 3, spool holding device 4, twisting nozzle unit 5, take-off device 6 for the conveying of the wire twisting device 7, straightening device 8 and coiling unit 9 for the finished stranded wire. The machine frame 1 comprises cast or welded beams, details of which are not illustrated.

The driving unit 2 comprises main driving motor 20 having a power take-off. coupling 21 carried thereby driving belts 22 and 23, (FIG. 2). Thebelt 22 drives the winding device 3while the belt 23 drives a control shaft 24. The shaft 24 drives change-speed gear 26 (FIGS. 1 and 2) through a belt 25. The gear 26 has a wheelwork with conical gearing for turning the driving direction of this wheelwork is not shown. The change-speed gear 26 drives the take-off device 6. The control shaft 24 also drives a infinitely variable gear 28 through a belt 27. The belt driving speed of the gear 28 can be infinitely varied within the range of l 6 and serves to drive the twisting device 7 via an additional belt 29. V 7 W 7 V 7 7 Still referring to FIG. 1, the winding device 3 essentially consists of a horizontally arranged shaft 30, a pulley 31 mounted on the shaft 30 and two guiding devices 32 and 33 for twisting the wire to be manufactured, designated at (FIG. 4). A channel 34 is formed coaxial to the shaft 30 and the pulley 31. The channel 34 has a portion extending radially outwardly in the area of the guiding device 32. The guiding device 32. is formed as a guide roller with a peripheral groove which at one point is arranged tangentially to the axis of rotation of the shaft 30, i.e.. the axis of device 32., is perpendicular to the axis of the shaft 30 and distant fromthe latter by the radius of the roller.

The guiding device 33 is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 4 and essentially consists of a ceramic ring 35, two

round holding plates 36, a holding disk 37 and a locking pin 38. The holding disk 37 has flanges which enclose the edge of a recess of the pulley 31 and are there attached by means of screws 39. Parallel to the tangent on the pulley 31 and situated at the place of the recess for the guiding device 33, the holding disk 37 has a bore which receives the locking pin 38. Across the disk 37 there is provided another recess into which the holding plates 36 together with the ceramic ring 35 can be inserted. The holding plates 36 likewise are provided with a bore so that, as shown by the drawing, the pin 38 holds the plates 36 in the recess of the disk 37. The ceramic ring 35 has a peripheral groove for receiving the wire 100. Thus, the ceramic ring 35 together with the holding plates 36 form a groove situated close to the periphery of the pulley 31 and rotating with the pulley 31 but which is general, does not rotate around its own axis.

The spool holding device 4 (FIGS. 1 and 2) is freewheelingly pivoted on the extension of the-shaft 30. However, it has to be pointed out that the spool holding device 4 is stationary, which is accomplished by unsymmetrical mass distribution with respect to its axis of rotation. The spool holding device 4 has a bushing 40, the bore of which is aligned with the channel 34, to form an extension thereof. A radially extending flange plate 41 is attached to the bushing 40. The flange plate 41 carries, for example, four bearing brackets 42 which have at each end an adjustable braking unit 43 (FIG. 2) as well as a rotatable bearing shaft 45 respectively coupled to a braking unit 43. A delivery spool 44 is mounted on each bearing shaft 45 preferably by means,

of an expanding device which is not illustrated. The rotation of each bearing shaft 45 is restrained by the adjustable braking unit 43 so that the correct tension of the take-off wires 101 can be regulated. Guiding device 46 for twisting the wires 101 is attached to the free end of the bushing 40. The guiding device 46 consists of one roller for each of the delivery spools 44. The periphery of each roller is provided with a groove for receiving the wire 101.

As can best be seen in FIG. 1, the wires 101 start from the delivery spools 44, meet together at the first guiding device 46 to form a bundle 102 that is twisted when passing through the bushing 40 and the channel 34 to the second guiding device 32, are guided thereby outwardly to the third guiding device 33 in the form of a firstly stranded wire or rope segment that is further twisted together when passing to the twisting nozzle unit 4 as secondly preformed twisted wire or rope segment 104.

As the winding device 3 rotates, the preformed wires 103 and 104 trace the lateral area of a double cone, the apices of which are each time occupied by the device 32 or unit 5, respectively. and constitute twisting stations. Thus. a double-twisting is accomplished by rotary hoisting pulley 31, which is the reason for the increased operation efficiency of the machine.

At the twisting nozzle unit 5, the preformed stranded wire in the form of the segment 105 is again guided in the direction of the axis of rotation of the winding device 3 and passes to the takeoff device 6 (FIGS. 1 and 3). This device includes an auxiliary take-off pulley 61 and a main takeoff pulley 62 (FIG. I). The main take-off pulley 62 is driven by the change-speed gear 26 whereby the gear 26 makes it possible to regulate the ratio of the number of revolutions of the main take-off pulley 62 is driven by the change-speed gear 26 whereby the gear 26 makes it possible to regulate the ratio of the number of revolutions of the main take-off pulley 62 to the number of revolutions of the winding device 3. This determines the length of the twist of the stranded wire to be manufactured. The auxiliary takeoff pulley 61 is coupled with the main take-off pulley 62 via several loops 106 of the preformed stranded wire so that the pulley 62 can be driven in but one direction. When the polarity of the motor 20 is reversed and accordingly, the pulley 62 rotates opposite the intended direction of rotation of pulley 61, the loop 106 restores the direction of rotation of pulley 61.

The loop of stranded wire in the form of segments 107a and 107b is conveyed from the auxiliary take-off pulley 61 to the twisting device 7 which is described in more detail in F IG. 5 and which essentially consists of a cage as well as two rollers 71 and 72 rotatably attached therein. The cage 70 is driven by belt-driven pulley 73 (FIGS. 3 and 5) which in turn, is driven by gear 28 via belt 74 (FIG. 3), intermediate pulley 75, and belt 29 (FIG. 2). Segment 107 of the loop is wound onto the rollers 71 and 72 in the form of an 8 as shown in FIG. 5 and then is guided to a stationary roller 79 as well as back to the auxiliary take-off pulley 61. The rollers 71 and 72 have U-shaped peripheral grooves to grip the stranded wire and to hold it. In this manner, the rollers 71 and 72 prevent the segment 107 from rotating relative to the twisting device 7, but allow the stranded wire to pass lengthwise through the twisting device 7. Moreover, the take-off pulleys 61 and 62 prevent the traversing wire from rotating relative to the take-off pulley 61 and 62. Thereby, the ends of the segments 107a and 107b are clamped so to speak.

The effect of the twisting device 7 consists in that the clamped segment 107a is twisted between the auxiliary take-off pulley 61 and roller 71 in the direction of the twist of the wire strands and that the twisting exceeds the elastic limit of the wires used (whereby the wires themselves undergo torsional and bending stresses); on the other hand, the segment 107b is of necessity twisted opposite to the twist of the stranded wire whereby the amount of twisting is distributed to a longer segment so that the stress of the wires always remains below the proportionality limit. Consequently, this untwisting of the stranded wire is re-formed because of the elastic forces while the desired plastic deformation is retained. The extent of plastic deformation is best experimentally determined by changing the driving speed of gear 26 until the correct adjustment is reached at which the stranded wire neither has a tendency of unwinding or twisting more than corresponds to the twist of the stranded wire.

From the auxiliary take-off pulley 61, the stranded wire as loop 108 is conveyed through the straigntening device 8 (FIGS. 1 and 3) which guides the stranded wire around narrow ending radii whereby a certain longitudinal waviness of the stranded wire is eliminated. The straightening device 8 consists of holding console 80, two sets of cylindrical pins 81 and 82 which are at a 90 angle with respect to each other, and a guide roller 83. As shown, the straightening device 8 essentially extends vertically upwards so that the available space is well utilized.

After the straightened stranded wire has been guided again over the take-off pulleys 61 and 62, it arrives at the coiling unit 9 (FIGS. 1 and 3) which consists of the following main parts: Guide roller 90, transfer roller 91, transfer drive 92, flat belt drive 93, spool holder 94 as well as final spool 95. The transfer roller 91 and transfer device 92 in known manner provides the uniform winding onto the final spool 95 depending upon the winding diameter prevailing each time. For this purpose. there is provided a slip clutch 96, the one side of which rotates with the maximally needed number of revolutions. After the final spool 95 is completely filled. it can be removed and replaced by an empty spool.

The auxiliary take-off pulley 61 has a shaft 65 (FIG. 6) which serves for driving a counter 66. The counter 66 counts the revolutions of the auxiliary take-off pulley 61 having, for example, an effective periphery of exactly 0.5m, and this counter indicates the length of the produced stranded wire in meters.

As FIG. 1 shows, a fairly compact arrangement of the individual parts of the machine is accomplished. This is attributable first of all to the housing of the driving main motor 20, the infinitely variable gear 28, thecontrol shaft 24 as well as the coiling unit 9 being arranged in the lower part of the machine frame 1 and is also attributable to the arrangement of the stranded wire forming devices 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 in the upper part whereby these devices 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 can be partially arranged one above the other by the use of loop formations of the wire.

It is apparent that a machine has been described for twisting wires together. Other stranded material could be formed by the machine without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the present invention.

w I claim:

1. A double twist stranded wire forming machine for the manufacture of stranded wire from individual wire elements comprising:

a machine frame;

a spool holding device for retaining individual wire elements;

the spool holding device having a first guiding device and a channel for the wire elements;

a winding device;

the winding device being pivoted on a shaft forming an extension of the channel and having a second guiding device, arranged tangentially to the axis of the rotation of the shaft, said winding device also having a third guiding device, said third guiding device arranged adjacent to the outer end of said shaft;

a first driving unit for the winding device to rotate it around the axis of rotation;

a take-off device for conveying the wire elements in a longitudinal direction; a second driving unit for the take-off device; the first and the second driving units being coupled to each other with respect to fixed settings of the speed ratios;

a twisting nozzle unit; said nozzle unit being arranged in an extension of the axis of rotation of the winding device and the channel of the spool holding device, said unit forming a fourth guiding device;

said wire elements being conveyed from the spooling means between the guiding devices during the rotation of the winding device, whereby the wire elements trace the lateral area of a double cone between the second, third and fourth guiding device;

a twisting device for twisting a segment of the preformed twisted wire in the direction of the twist beyond the elastic limit of the materials of the wire elements;

a third infinitely variable driving unit for rotating the twisting device;

the speed of the third driving unit being regulated with respect to the speed of the first driving unit so that the finished stranded wire has no tendency of unwinding.

2. Double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics:

the twisting device comprising a rotatable cage and a gripping roller device attached therein; the stranded wire being wound onto the gripping roller device in a manner in which the stranded wire is restrained from turning relative to the twisting direction.

3. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 2 with the following additional characteristics:

the gripping roller device comprising two rollers provided with peripheral grooves having an axis of rotation which is perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the cage and which is so arranged that the winding-up stranded wire segment describes an 8.

4. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 2 with the following additional characteristics:

the third guiding device comprising a groove element which is attached to the winding device which at least partially consists of ceramics and which has grooves that are arranged in a radial plane containing the axis of rotation of the winding device.

5. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 4 with the following additional characteristics;

the groove element being formed as a ring and attached to the winding device by means of a holding disk which has a recess for receiving the groove element as well as a bore for receiving a locking pin for the groove element.

6. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics:

the spool holding device being arranged stationarily within the cone traced by the preformed stranded wire.

7. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 6 with the following additional characteristics:

the spool holding device being freewheeling pivoted on the reeling device in alignment with the axis of rotation of the latter and having an unsymmetrical mass distribution with respect to its axis of rotation.

9. A double twist wire stranded wire forming machine according to claim 8 with the following additional characteristics:

the main driving motor and the adjustable gear being arranged in the lower part of the machine frame while the reeling device and the spool holding device are situated above whereby their axis of rotation is arranged horizontally.

10. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics: v

a straightening device for eliminating waviness from the finished stranded wire; said straightening device comprising several turning places through which the stranded wire is drawn.

H. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 10 with the following additional characteristics:

the straightening device for eliminating waviness from the finished stranded wire disposed above the take-off device.

12. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics:

a counter coupled with a shaft of the take-off device in the direction of rotation and being standardized for length units of the finished stranded wire.

13. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics:

a coiling unit for the finished stranded wire, the coiling unit having a detachable spool so that the finished stranded wire can be removed from the machine.

14. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 13 with the following additional characteristics:

the coiling unit being arranged in the lower lateral part of the machine frame while the take-off device and the twisting device are situated above. a: 

1. A double twist stranded wire forming machine for the manufacture of stranded wire from individual wire elements comprising: a machine frame; a spool holding device for retaining individual wire elements; the spool holding device having a first guiding device and a channel for the wire elements; a winding device; the winding device being pivoted on a shaft forming an extension of the channel and having a second guiding device, arranged tangentially to the axis of the rotation of the shaft, said winding device also having a third guiding device, said third guiding device arranged adjacent to the outer end of said shaft; a first driving unit for the winding device to rotate it around the axis of rotation; a take-off device for conveying the wire elements in a longitudinal direction; a second driving unit for the take-off device; the first and the second driving units being coupled to each other with respect to fixed settings of the speed ratios; a twisting nozzle unit; said nozzle unit being arranged in an extension of the axis of rotation of the winding device and the channel of the spool holding device, said unit forming a fourth guiding device; said wire elements being conveyed from the spooling means between the guiding devices during the rotation of the winding device, whereby the wire elements trace the lateral area of a double cone between the second, third and fourth guiding device; a twisting device for twisting a segment of the preformed twisted wire in the direction of the twist beyond the elastic limit of the materials of the wire elements; a third infinitely variable driving unit for rotating the twisting device; the speed of the third driving unit being regulated with respect to the speed of the first driving unit so that the finished stranded wire has no tendency of unwinding.
 2. Double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics: the twisting device comprising a rotatable cage and a gripping roller device attached therein; the stranded wire being wound onto the gripping roller device in a manner in which the stranded wire is restrained from turning relative to the twisting direction.
 3. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 2 with the following additional characteristics: the gripping roller device comprising two rollers provided with peripheral grooves having an axis of rotation which is perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the cage and which is so arranged that the winding-up stranded wire segment describes an ''''8''''.
 4. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 2 with the following additional characteristics: the third guiding device comprising a groove element which is attached to the winding device which at least partially consists of ceramics and which has grooves that are arranged in a radial plane containing the axis of rotation of the winding device.
 5. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 4 with the following additional characteristics; the groove element being formed as a ring and attached to the winding device by means of a holding disk which has a recess for receiving the groove element as well as a bore for receiving a locking pin for the groove element.
 6. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics: the spool holding device being arranged stationarily within the cone traced by the preformed stranded wire.
 7. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 6 with the following additional characteristics: the spool holding device being freewheeling pivoted on the reeling device in alignment with the axis of rotation of the latter and having an unsymmetrical mass distribution with respect to its axis of rotation.
 8. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics: the driving unit for the winding device and the take-off device for the conveying of the wire element, or the rope share being driven by the same main driving motor, the rotation direction of which can be reversed; the drive of the take-off device further comprising a gear with adjustable ratio of the input speed to the output speed.
 9. A double twist wire stranded wire forming machine according to claim 8 with the following additional characteristics: the main driving motor and the adjustable gear being arranged in the lower part of the machine frame while the reeling device and the spool holding device are situated above whereby their axis of rotation is arranged horizontally.
 10. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics: a straightening device for eliminating waviness from the finished stranded wire; said straightening device comprising several turning places through which the stranded wire is drawn.
 11. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 10 with the following additional characteristics: the straightening device for eliminating waviness from the finished stranded wire disposed above the take-off device.
 12. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics: a counter coupled with a shaft of the take-off device in the direction of rotation and being standardized for length units of the finished stranded wire.
 13. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 1 with the following additional characteristics: a coiling unit for the finished stranded wire, the coiling unit having a detachable spool so that the finished stranded wire can be removed from the machine.
 14. A double twist stranded wire forming machine according to claim 13 with the following additional characteristics: the coiling unit being arranged in the lower lateral part of the machine frame while the take-off device and the twisting device are situated above. 